Labor lost: "the word that is best loved in the language of every nation is 'home.'" - End Quote

Residential Architect, Nov-Dec, 2003 by Gustav Stickley

gustav Stickley's Arts and Crafts furniture designs are beloved for their humble beauty and reliance on organic materials. Naturally his house in the New Jersey countryside, Craftsman Farms, followed suit. Built of logs and stone harvested from the 650-acre property, the home was conceived as the head-quarters for a boys" school Stickley hoped to run. Midway through construction, he realized he wouldn't be able to start the school for several more years. So he transformed the second floor into private living space for his family. The downstairs remained as he had planned it--oversized rooms, stone fireplaces, and simple furniture.

Down to its hand-detailed copper light fixtures, the home demonstrated Stickley's belief in the union of human labor and natural elements. "When a man's home is born out of his heart and enveloped through his labor and perfected through his sense of beauty," he wrote in his magazine, The Craftsman, "it is the very cornerstone of his life."

Stickley had to sell Craftsman Farms in 1917. But its current operator, the Craftsman Farms Foundation, runs tours and educational programs that fulfill his dream of teaching others about Arts and Crafts. Along with the home's owner, the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills, the foundation has restored much of the property. For information on visiting Craftsman Farms, go to www.stickley museum.org or call 973.540.1165.